18 | MAY 6 - 12, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
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Devil Love SUBMITTED
Devil Love off ers rich, haunting ‘Broken Things’ Victor Infante Columnist Worcester Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK
“Self,” digital painting KIRA HOUSTON/ARTSWORCESTER
Kira Houston Kira Houston Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Kira Houston is a student at Clark University double majoring in Art History and Spanish while minoring in Creative Writing. He works for the Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ+ Students as a transgender advocate. In his free time (in addition to writing and acting) he creates digital and traditional character illustrations. Kira creates artwork with LGBTQ+ themes, highlighting the
relationship between whimsical fantasies and Queer realities. To see more of Kira’s work, visit his website, https:// kiyye.com/. This Artist Spotlight is presented by Worcester Magazine in partnership with ArtsWorcester. Since 1979, ArtsWorcester has exhibited and advanced the work of this region’s contemporary artists. Its exhibitions and educational events are open and free to all. Learn more at www.artsworcester.org.
One of the fi rst things that leaps out at the listener about Devil Love's recent album, “Broken Things,” is how – aside from the fi rst thrash of rock in the opening number, “Everywhere Leads the Sound” – everything feels so impermanent and fl eeting. Love and joy are not boundless things here, but rather things to treasure because they could dissipate at any moment. Sometimes they already have by the time a song ends. The band – which comprises Peter Buzzelle on vocals and guitar, Ken Rothman on guitar, Jason Raffi on bass, Chuck Ferreira on percussion, and Josh Cohen on keyboards and guitar – creates a rock sound that feels immediate and vibrant, and that's important, because there's no denying that, for all its indie rock fl air, this feels like an immensely personal project. The aforementioned “Everywhere Leads the Sound” is a fl at-out rocker,
and between the thunder of Ferreira's drums, Buzzelle delivers what seems to be the album's thesis: “In giving we get/ Be thankful/For what you have/It won’t last/It won’t last.” The song blisters with heat, especially at the guitar solo bridge, and somehow the contrast with the subsequent song – the lower-key “We Can Leave Tonight” – makes the latter feel more intimate. There's a sort of deliberate deceleration happening from the album's outset: “Everywhere” has a frenetic feel, while “Leave Tonight” has a sense of desperation. It's a call to action: “Doesn’t matter where we go, as long as you’re with me/Anywhere is better than here.” When that leads into the lushly textured “Gold Currency,” about a more enduring relationship – one that's survived the test of time – the fi re that the fi rst two songs had stoked seems to be replaced by a sort of enveloping warmth. It feels more permanent than the wildfi re passion before it, but even here, there's something ineff ably delicate, something perishable. “Gold Currency” gives way to the low bass thump of the title song, where Buzzelle sings, “We’re broken things/ See DEVIL LOVE, Page 28D
